Space Invaders

This doodle, which appears to be a wireframe model of a "Space Invader" from the popular arcade video game, was found in the scribe lane of a Digital VAX microprocessor support chip. We are not sure if our interpretation of the figure's origin is correct and would appreciate any input from our visitors. This chip is also the one that contains the Digital Kiwi in the pad ring.

The Space Invaders game was designed and programmed by Japanese engineer Toshihiro Nishikado in 1978 for the electronics firm Taito. In 1980, Atari licensed the game for the 2600 game system and this became the first game ever adapted for Atari's home game lineup. Space Invaders was originally based on the Intel 8080 microprocessor using analog audio and a transparent colored gel overlay on top of a monochrome display.

Several visitors from MIT have suggested that the origin of this doodle may be a dormitory on the MIT campus known as THiRD EAst, which uses a mascot that is remarkably similar to the space invader artwork. These ex-MIT visitors inform us that a high percentage of the residents from this dorm are electrical engineering and computer science majors and speculate that the DEC engineer responsible for the doodle may have been a resident of the dorm.